Sadness as Martijn Gilbert to leave Reading Buses

Municipal operation holds fond place in heart for CEO, who is moving to Go North East

Reading Buses CEO, Martijn Gilbert, is to leave his post at the end of July.

Martijn is to take up the role of MD at Go-Ahead Group’s Go North East operation, based in Newcastle. He is to take over from Kevin Carr, who is set to retire. Martijn has held his role at Reading since 2014. Prior to that, he spent nine years at Arriva and set up his own bus company in 2002, before selling it to Centra. The process to recruit a successor at Reading’s municipal bus operation has now commenced.

Martijn said: “It is with a degree of sadness that I will be leaving Reading Buses, which will always have a fond place in my heart, to take up a new and somewhat bigger challenge elsewhere in the UK bus profession. By the time I leave I will have done nearly four years in post and during that time I have been exceptionally privileged to work with a great team of people and so many enthusiastic and supportive stakeholders.

“Together we have been through many enjoyable and interesting times and achieved great things that I am immensely proud to have been a part of. The company also continues to be on an exciting journey in tackling and adapting to the challenges of growing congestion, emerging technologies, changing retail, work and travel trends, economic pressures and also pursuing new growth opportunities.

“We have increasingly moved from being a local to a regional bus company across Berkshire, alongside continuing to invest in and develop our core Reading network, as the growth in Reading focussed jobs and housing continues beyond the Borough boundary. This is in addition to the ongoing opportunities to align with the growing regional economy through the work of partners in the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and major infrastructure schemes such as CrossRail. All of this expansion is helping generate new income which adds value to our core Reading based business and helps offset rising economic pressures.

“My focus in my remaining three months will continue to be on working with our stakeholders and the team here at Reading Buses to ensure that we do all we can to deliver high standards of service to our customers and also ensure that our company has a secure and prosperous future for the communities we serve, our employees and our shareholder.”

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